Paola Musiani (25 November 1949 - 8 January 1985) was an Italian singer.

Life and career

Musiani was born in

Vignola Vignola (Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese: ; Bolognese dialect, Bolognese: ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Modena (Emilia-Romagna), Italy. Its economy is based on agriculture, especially fruit farming, but there are also mechani ...

, Modena. At the age of 16, while making her accountancy studies, Musiani started singing in the dance halls of her region. In 1966, after taking part in a singing contest with a cover version of

The Monkees The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was con ...

' "

I'm a Believer "I'm a Believer" is a song written by Neil Diamond and recorded by the Monkees in 1966 with the lead vocals by Micky Dolenz. The single, produced by Jeff Barry, hit the number-one spot on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart for the week endi ...

", she was put under contract by

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

."Paola Musiani" in Gino Castaldo (edited by). ''Dizionario della canzone italiana''. Curcio, 1990. In 1967, Musiani got her first success with "Ode per Billie Joe", a cover version of

Bobbie Gentry Bobbie Gentry (born Roberta Lee Streeter; July 27, 1942) is a retired American singer-songwriter, who was one of the first female artists in America to compose and produce her own material. Gentry rose to international fame in 1967 with her Sou ...

's "

Ode to Billie Joe "Ode to Billie Joe" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry released by Capitol Records in July 1967, and later used as the title-track of her debut album. Five weeks after its release, the song topped '' Billboard's'' Pop sin ...

". In the following years, she took part to the most important musical events in Italy, including

Canzonissima ''Canzonissima'' was an Italian musical variety show broadcast by Rai 1 from 1958 to 1974, aired on Saturday evening except for the last two editions in which it was aired on Sunday afternoon. The program was referred to as "the synthesis and the ...

Cantagiro Cantagiro was an Italian summer song contest held from 1962 to 1972 and 1990 to 1993. It featured three categories, A for famous artists, B for newcomers and C for groups. The creator of the competition was Ezio Radaelli. The name of the festival ...

Festivalbar The Festivalbar was an Italian singing competition that took place in the most important Italian squares during summer, such as the Piazza del Duomo, Catania or Piazza Bra, Verona. The first edition took place in 1964 and was broadcast by RAI. ...

and two editions of the

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annua ...

, in 1974 and

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

. Musiani later became active on stage as an operetta singer and actress, before dying prematurely, aged 35, because of a car crash in the

Autostrada del Sole The Autostrade (; singular ) are roads forming the Italy, Italian national system of motorways. The total length of the system is about . In North and Central Italy, the Autostrade mainly consists of tollways managed by Autostrade per l'Itali ...

Discography

Album

* 1972: ''Dedicato a Paola'' * 1984: ''Trapianto'' (as La Musiani)

Singles

* 1967: La facciata A/Dipingi un mondo per me (CBS, 2727) * 1967: Ode per Billie Joe/Con la tua mamma (CBS, 3027) * 1968: Un ragazzo che sogna/Promesse (CBS, 3513) * 1969: Tu dormirai/Se vuoi cadere in piedi (CBS, 4171) * 1969: Deserto/La principessa non canta più (CBS, 4280) * 1970: Faccia da schiaffi/Cosa vuoi cuore mio (Bentler, BE/NP 5066) * 1971: Noi/Le mie pazza scale (Bentler, BE/NP 5077) * 1971: Il nostro concerto/Adesso che mi manchi tu (Bentler, BE/NP 5079) * 1972: Passerà/La mia strana vita (Bentler, BE/NP 5082) * 1972: Tocco magico/Alone again (Bentler, BE/NP 5086) * 1972: Tu eri il mio bene/Amore immenso (Bentler, BE/NP 5088) * 1973: Tango della gelosia/Davanti a Dio (Bentler, BE/NP 5089) * 1974: La donna quando pensa/L'ultima spiaggia (Bentler, BE/NP-5091) * 1975: Se nasco un’altra volta/Chiaro (Bentler, BE/NP-5099) * 1978: Se/Vieni adesso (Bella Record, ZBN 10002) * 1979: Quello che ci vuole per me/ (Space, ZSB 00102) * 1982: Lassame sta'/E' amare (Effe Proposta, EP-005) * 1983: Fastidio/Curiosità (F1 Team, P 7301)

References

External links

Paola Musiani
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musiani, Paola People from Vignola 1949 births 1985 deaths Italian pop singers Italian musical theatre actresses Road incident deaths in Italy 20th-century Italian women singers